Our Team

A native of Evanston, Illinois, Mary Kastman is a graduate of UW Madison and the Madison College Culinary Arts Program. She began her culinary career in Madison, Wisconsin at Restaurant Muramoto and 43 North before relocating to Boston in 2011. In Boston, Mary discovered her deep love for Eastern Mediterranean food and spice while working at two of the city's powerhouse restaurants, Oleana and Sarma. In spring 2019, she relocated to Viroqua, Wisconsin, where she served as Executive Chef at the Driftless Cafe, earning a James Beard Semi-Finalist nomination for Best Chef, Midwest in 2022.

In summer 2024, Mary launched Purslane as a pop-up concept in Viroqua, introducing guests to the flavors of the Mediterranean and Middle East while drawing on an extensive network of small and family farms across rural Wisconsin. The overwhelming response led to the opening of Purslane's brick-and-mortar restaurant in Milwaukee's Lower East Side in June 2025, where Mary now leads a full-service dining program devoted to seasonal, locally sourced Eastern Mediterranean cuisine with a strong emphasis on Turkish flavors.

For Mary, Purslane is more than a restaurant—it is a platform for connection and community building. She believes deeply in the restaurant's potential to foster meaningful relationships with local farmers and producers, celebrate the richness of diverse culinary traditions, and create a gathering space where people from all walks of life can come together. Through thoughtful sourcing, genuine hospitality, and a commitment to inclusivity, Mary uses Purslane as a vehicle for positive change in Milwaukee's food system and broader community.

Purslane is an idea rooted in connection—connection to the earth, to our local foodways, and to each other. While not widely used in American cuisine, purslane is a traditional plant found in gardens across the globe. It is a nutritional powerhouse in many Mediterranean cuisines and offers the promise of greatness—much like the relationships and community that define Mary's approach to hospitality and food.

Madelyn Fell, Pastry Chef at Purslane, is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America in New York with extensive pastry experience across Milwaukee's finest establishments. She previously directed the pastry program at Ardent and has worked at acclaimed venues including Lupi and Iris. A West Bend native, Maddie is passionate about sourcing and celebrating local Wisconsin ingredients, transforming them into distinctive desserts that provide the perfect ending to every meal. Her approach draws inspiration from nostalgia and classical technique, which she reimagines through an Eastern Mediterranean lens—infusing her sweet creations with the region's distinctive flavors and ingredients. An avid bread baker, Maddie also oversees Purslane's dining room, bringing the same care and attention to hospitality that defines her pastry work.